Serendipity
by Bravery89
Summary: "Everything happens for a reason." I could have coined this saying as my own. Every decision, every mistake I had made, had led me here. So despite all the signs that told me otherwise, something positive was coming my way, right?
1. Prologue - Walk

**"Everything happens for a reason." I could have coined this saying as my own.  
Every decision, every mistake I had made, had led me here. So despite all the signs that told me otherwise, something positive was coming my way, right?**

* * *

 _A million miles away  
_ _Your signal in the distance  
_ _To whom it may concern  
_ _I think I lost my way  
_ _Getting good at starting over  
_ _Every time that I return_

 _Learning to walk again_  
 _I believe I've waited long enough_  
 _Where do I begin?_  
 _Learning to talk again_  
 _Can't you see I've waited long enough?_  
 _Where do I begin?_

 _-Foo Fighters, Walk_

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _Word of the day._

 _Serendipity: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for_

 _..._

How fitting.

I felt my chin quiver.

No.

 _You're strong._

 _You've always been strong._

 _Something positive could be taken from this._

 _Everything happens for a reason._

I could have coined that saying as my own

It happened every time I had a downfall.

The last downfall was my last layoff. A few months ago. Part of the reason it made sense for me to move here.

At least I had my career now.

At least I found it rewarding.

Right.

I didn't just move across the country for a man.

I wasn't that person.

I had some friends.

Few friends.

Because I had relied on this plan.

This one, fucking plan to work out.

One where I wasn't the dumbass who had moved across the country for _some guy._

 _He wasn't some guy._

He was my guy.

And now, I wasn't his girl.

I had left my family, my friends.

I had become that fucking person who picked up her life for somebody who...

 _Every decision, every mistake I had made, had led me here._

 _So something positive was coming my way, right?_

Somebody who...

"Oh God," I covered my face in my hands as the tears flowed. "I'm so stupid."

* * *

 **This story has been coming to me in little tidbits, but it's coming along. I really hope you enjoy this journey with me.**

 **Thank you for reading! Chapters will get longer, and I'll be updating frequently.**

 **Next update at 11:15PM CT.**

 **-Bravery**


	2. Everything

**Chapter 1 - Everything**

"Are you sure you have everything?" I asked him as he stood at the door of our apartment. He looked like a kid on the first day of school. I grinned, proud of him. He was going to do his best.

"I hope so, Bella," Jacob responded. He was dressed in a business suit, and even though I had seen him dressed up, dressed down, and dressed in nothing at all, he still managed to make me want to rip his clothing off of him. "I'm nervous."

My man was nervous. Of course he was. He had worked his ass off back in Seattle. It had come to the point where I barely saw him because he was constantly putting in hours at the firm he had been working. He had been given promises of promotion after promotion, but he had yet to see anything come up of it. Now, he was finally going to work to do what he wanted to do.

"Don't be," I reassured him as I kissed his cheek. "You'll be great."

I knew that with every part of me because I knew him. Jacob Black and I had been together since we were nineteen years old. We had met in our College Statistics class at the University of Washington.

It truly was serendipity, considering neither of us majored in anything to do with math, and it was a course that I barely made it into. His schedule was so stacked with his courses from his double major of history and public policy that it was the only opportunity for he and I to even have a conversation. To add onto it, I wasn't even supposed to be in that course. My academic adviser had made a mistake and placed me in a course that I wouldn't need for my major.

I shouldn't have met him.

On the first day of class, even though I was on time, I entered the class to discover the only seat left was right in the front row, directly to the left of the most handsome guy I had ever seen in my life. I had sat down, and minutes later, the entire class was informed that the person to our right would be our partner for a team research project. When I had glanced at my partner, my now long term boyfriend, I was terrified. To begin, he was handsome as all hell, but also, he was a giant. And after we had made our introduction, I realized that he was a junior, was a part of the Mock Trial team, and was also on the lacrosse team. We had gotten along so well, and I had fallen in love with him in the second week of classes.

And for some reason, he had fallen smitten with me, too. He hadn't asked me out until the class ended, but I said yes. Two weeks after that, I lost my virginity to him. We had moved very quickly, which I found no issue. I never wanted to be his friend; I only wanted him.

That was six years ago, and we were still going strong.

Two months ago, he had been offered a job with a law firm in Chicago.

At that time, I was in a contracted position for a non-profit back in Seattle where we lived together. He had been offered the job right as my contract expired.

It was the ideal time to pick up our lives and go.

Today, was the first day of his job, and next Tuesday would be the first day of my new career as a technical manager in yet another nonprofit corporation. However, this job paid more, had better benefits, and also allowed for me to make a bigger difference when it came to data-driven projects in situations in which resources were not available.

So - not only was I dating my dream guy.

I would working in my dream job.

And he was working in his.

We had _everything_.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Thoughts?**

 **-Bravery**


	3. Early

**Chapter 2 - Early**

I was right. Jacob had an amazing first day - no, first week - at work. He was already well-liked from what he had described. I was so happy for him.

And today was my first day at my job.

I was half an hour early for work.

I made sure of it.

I woke up at five in the morning, and I was ready before Jacob was even awake. My schedule was different from his. His scheduled had him working late five days a week, while mine would have me up at the ass crack of dawn four days a week with one weekday free.

I was okay with that, though.

It was different from back in Washington when I was working a maximum of thirty hours a week.

This job was a minimum of forty hours.

I kissed Jacob on the cheek before I left, which was when he was getting out of bed, and headed out.

The drive was a mere twenty-five minutes, which I found to be surprising considering I had heard how awful Chicago traffic could be.

I grinned as I pulled up to the building I would be working. It was a commercial building with two advertising firms and the company for which I would be working.

It was spectacular. From what Rosalie Hale, my human resource contact, had told me, I needed to take the third elevator to the sixth floor. Apparently, if I attempted to take a different one, I'd end up on the top floor and would have to walk all the way down to my floor.

I was grateful for that information.

I watched the numbers go up in the elevator and waited for the ding to let me know I had reached my floor. I walked out into the lobby and looked around.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go left or right.

"May I help you find something?" I glanced to where I heard the voice to see a man seated at the front desk. He had shaggy brown hair and looked around my age. He was wearing a button-up with a tie. He was cute. Above his head was the sign, 'Energy Conservation Global Systems'.

I adjusted my bag on shoulder and walked over to him.

His expression was friendly. His steel blue eyes met my brown ones.

I smiled sheepishly. "Hi, I'm Isabella Swan. Today's my first day here, and I'm not sure where to go."

He raised his eyebrows and stood.

He was tall, probably around six feet.

"Ah, I can help you with that, Ms. Swan."

"Thank you so much," I glanced at his nametag, "Jasper."

He smirked. Then, he walked around the desk and reached out his hand. I placed mine in his and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Swan. We're all excited to work with you."

"I'm very excited to work with you all as well," I blushed. "And please, call me Bella."

"Okay, Bella. I'll show you to your desk."

I nodded.

Jasper reached over his desk, grabbed a lanyard that had a key fob attached to it and led me to a glass door. He swiped his fob and the door automatically opened. Immediately in front of me was a kitchen.

"This is where everyone takes lunch," he gestured to the brightly lit room. "Sometimes, it is reserved out for birthdays and such, but usually, you get an email about that."

It looked like a mini diner. On one end of the room, there were four tables and two booths. On the opposite end were two refrigerators, next to a kitchenette.

"Did you bring a lunch?" He asked. "If so, you can actually just put it in one of the fridges. That is, if it needs to be refrigerated."

I hadn't even thought about a lunch.

Shit.

How did I forget to pack a lunch?

"Wait," he snapped his fingers. "They're supplying lunch for you today."

"Thank God," I laughed. "For some reason, food wasn't on my mind this morning."

He laughed as well as he led me to the left of the kitchen.

"I would say just about every week there is some event in which someone brings in food," he said as I sped up to walk beside him. "So I doubt you'll have to worry about not having lunch often here."

I noted that in the back of my mind. If there was constant food, I would have to join a gym. I rarely said no to free food.

We walked around through what felt like a maze and finally reached a small dark office with my name on the door.

"Well, here is your new office," he stated, flipping on the lights.

I stepped inside. There was a large, empty wooden desk with small lamp on it. The carpet was a dark green color, which, while it wasn't a color of which I was too fond, I was sure I could easily get used to it.

To the left of the desk was a filing cabinet. And behind, was a deluxe fabric task chair. Even though the office was bare, I already loved it.

"You should be receiving a computer today. IT should come around after lunch for you. I'll let Rosalie know you're in your office. She'll be stopping by with a folder for you that has some itinerary for your first week."

I turned to Jasper who was standing in the doorway.

"If you need anything, there's a list of all of our extensions taped to the side of the filing cabinet. Please call me with anything you need."

"Thank you, Jasper."

He grinned again.

"Welcome to Energy Conservation Global Systems."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading and for those of you already supporting this!**

 **Have any of you dealt with Chicago traffic? I feel like I can leave at the same time for work every day and it either takes me thirty minutes or fifty-five. There's nothing in between.**

 **-Bravery**


	4. Happy

**Forgot to say - all characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.**

* * *

 _Welcome to Energy Conservation Global Systems, my ass._

Since I had started there two weeks ago, Jasper Whitlock had been the only person who had been welcoming.

Nobody had been particularly rude. Well...at least not until _today_.

However, everyone was just so _cold_. It was very different from what I had been used to back in Washington. People went out of their ways to ensure everyone felt as though they were on a team where I had worked.

This environment was so alienating. My team barely talked to one another unless it was about work. That was fine - except earlier today when I had asked my colleague Lauren Stanley to help me navigate the software.

" _Didn't you learn this in your last contracting position?" She had asked._

" _We had a third party come in and take care of it," I admitted. "Can you please help me with this?"_

" _Well, we don't have a high budget like the company you had come from. We actually had to learn what to do here and not rely on outsourcing."_

 _I raised my eyebrows - not because of the words she used, but because of the patronizing tone in which she said the words. It was so passive aggressive and sounded as though she pitied me. What in the world was this girl's problem?_

 _I sighed. "And that's why I'm asking you for your help."_

 _Fifteen minutes later, after being spoken down to, I finally said, "I'll actually just figure it out myself. Thank you for your help, though, Lauren."_

Unfortunately, nobody else spoke to me. Everyone kept to themselves.

They simply weren't interested in learning about one another.

For someone who had just moved here, it was isolating. I wanted to make friends, and while I hadn't moved here specifically to do that, it would have been nice to have some kind of companionship through work.

I didn't want to rely solely on my relationship with Jacob. However, it was nice to see him after a long day. When he had gotten home, I was relieved. I finally had someone to talk to.

"So, tell me about work," I stated as I sprinkled some garlic into my tomato sauce. I had stopped at the store and had grabbed a few ingredients to make spaghetti on the way home. I had needed a distraction and cooking was the way to do it.

"Bella," Jake moved next to me, leaning against the counter. "I can't even describe it. I love it. I'm finally doing something I love. My boss is awesome. He catered in lunch today. Moving out here was the best decision we could have made. I love it."

I paused.

For a millisecond, but he noticed.

I felt his eyes on me and so I glanced over at him. He had a thoughtful look on his face.

"What is it?" I laughed nervously.

"You just...seem so _content_ here."

That surprised me.

And disappointed me.

What I was feeling was the opposite of content. I was anxious and stressed, and I had only been at this place for two weeks.

"Content?"

"Yeah," he grinned. "Just seeing you when I got home, waiting here for me...you were just so happy to see me."

I looked away.

"That sounds…pathetic."

Like a puppy dog who misses her owner.

He laughed. "Yeah, I guess I didn't phrase it correctly."

I pressed my hands down on the counter. "So what did you mean, then?"

This time, he paused. "Nothing. I just was happy to see you and you seemed happy to see me."

"I am," I forced a smile and made eye contact with him. Brown to brown. "I _am_ happy to see you."

"How was your day at work, Bella?"

I hadn't told him about how I was having issues finding my niche. Since he was having a great day, I didn't want to ruin it.

"My day was great."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **ALSO -** **pretty awesome - my other story Anima Gemella was rec'd by The Lemonade Stand!**

 **Thank you for the rec ladies!**

 **Check out all the other bomb ass stories there.**

 **I also am really enjoying Cerebral by LyricalKris.**

-Bravery89


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